Insights from BCC Research

IT Firms Tapping Enterprise Security Market

A data breach can have serious consequences, including erosion of brand reputation and loss of shareholder value. Today, as high as 60% of breaches take more than 90 days to be discovered, thus posing a serious threat to organizations. Data centers continue to grow, as have security risks to data center software security, data center hardware security, and data center security services.

The increased demand for IT security is presenting opportunities in the global market for data center security. Last February, for example, HCL Technologies and Symantec Corporation announced an expansion of their partnership to help enterprises in cloud security, cyber threats, and forensic solutions. The endeavor aims to help enterprises better meet their information and risk management needs by building a cyber-resilient service that safeguards them from targeted attacks and persistent threats.

According to a 2015 survey report issued by the CyberEdge Group, more than 70 percent of respondents’ networks had been breached in 2014—up from 62 percent in 2013—with more than 20 percent breached six times or more. For the first time, a majority of respondents (52 percent) now believe a successful cyberattack is likely in the coming year—up from 39 percent in last year’s report. The report surveyed more than 800 security decision makers and practitioners in December 2014 across North America and Europe.

INTRODUCTION TO IT SECURITY

IT security is defined as the security for networks, devices, information, applications and other such systems that are either present in or linked to the data center, network or information applications, according to BCC Research analyst Ritam Biswas. IT security can be implemented in the form of hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. Another key part of IT security is security services, which includes managed security services and consulting services.

IT security includes all forms of devices, applications and information and hence can be categorized into many different segments such as network security, data protection and security, and mobile security, among others. The IT security market has witnessed rapid technological development and changes, and with the current strong growth of Internet of Things (IoT) and mobility, IT security includes IoT security and security mobility components (such as Wi-Fi security, Bluetooth, etc.).

EMERGENCE OF NEW DATA CENTERS AROUND THE WORLD

The expanding partnership between HCL and Symantec represents a response to an expanding data center market, says Biswas. The market is “witnessing a strong growth with a shift from perimeter-based data centers to cloud and virtualized (software defined) data centers,” he explains.

“Technology companies around the world have increased their spending on data centers, which is having a strong impact on the data center security market, as well,” says Biswas.

GROWING NEED FOR SECURITY

The growth of the data center market and virtualization of data centers (which brings advantages such as scalability and cost reduction) has certain risks, including heightened security risks and increasing the attack vectors. Major threats include insider thefts attacks from competitors, national government sponsored attacks and a growing community of private hackers launching threats for criminal and political reasons.

Biswas says that these threats have become more common over the years. On the government front, cyber-attacks from other nations in the form of malware and distributed denial of service (DDoS) have become common. Companies of all sorts and governments realized the need for data center security products and security industries started witnessing demand from data center specific solutions.

“The frequency of DDoS attacks has increased over time: A total of 23,095 were carried out on web resources located in 76 countries in the first quarter of 2015, which was up 15% from the 66 countries affected in the final quarter of 2014,” he reports.

Back on the business front, Kalyan Kumar, HCL’s chief technologist, says, “As 21st Century enterprises adopt digitization in today’s hyper-competitive world, a need for new solutions has emerged in order to secure businesses in the digital world. We are seeing movement of critical workloads to cloud and clients expect enterprise grade security aligned with it.”

According to Anirban Chakravartti, head of Symantec global alliances, the expansion aims to enable their clients to have “greater visibility” into the threats in their environments. “The partnership enables clients to gain more control and take action with the help of HCL’s world class services and our products such as DLP, data center security and advanced threat protection,” he says.